Athletics requires a lot of determination, effort, and a will to succeed. The running events in track and field can take a lot out of the kids, especially in hot climates. We worked very hard to ensure that our students really understood the importance of pacing themselves in the longer distance races and it certainly paid off as we had a very good showing in these events today at the regional track and field meet at Northbridge International School in Phnom Penh. This meet was an excellent way to conclude our Athletics unit. We will follow up this event by doing final written reflections next week. Come back to visit next week to see some examples of our final assessment tasks in Athletics.

In my "Examples of Integration" page, you can see an example of a stand alone integration with PE and Art. We have been preparing the Early Years students for their annual Sports Day which was held at ISPP on Thursday, Feb. 17th. About 4 weeks ago in PE, I began to introduce 'Road signs and symbols' to the children. I introduced 3 road signs per class and had the students run through various activities aimed at helping them not only to visually identify each road sign, but to also be able to apply each sign's meaning in variety of designed activities. 

In Art class, the teacher, Kristin Anson, introduced different forms of transportation to the students. Kristin did a wonderful job in helping the students inquire into the various forms of transport and their main identifying features. This in itself took a couple of weeks for Kristin, but it led to the students having a working knowledge of different modes of transport and their main features. At this point, she brought large cardboard boxes into the classes and allowed them to create their own driving machines. And they created it! By week 5, they had created motorcycles with wings, tuk tuks, flying buses, cars that could turn into rockets, and simple trucks with 4 wheels. A true inquiry was at work and it was great to watch the process unfold.

By week 5, both Kristin and I had the Early Years students tune into the fact that they would be using these amazing contraptions to maneuver through a road course that would be set up for Sports Day. As mentioned in a previous blog, the director of our school, Barry Sutherland, would act as Mr. Policeman watching the students work their way through the road course and busting them when they broke the law. As the old song goes, "I fought the law and the law won", our fine cop was handing out fines left and right busily pulling the students over in their wacky contraptions. Barry even went to extraordinary lengths to have his own Cambodian police outfit done up at a local tailor's shop to assert a real presence which was a great touch. The students loved it! Enjoy the photos below...... There was a rubric that was done for each student assessing their understanding and application of road signs and symbols. Rubric will be uploaded soon. Please try this unit out, it's great!

In the guide 'Making the PYP Happen',(page 117) I have found that the related concepts within each of the three strands has helped me to open up more possibilities within my lessons. If you have a copy of 'Making the PYP Happen', have a look at the related concepts to see how they might fit into any of the units that you teach. I have provided the list of the related concepts below under each strand:
Strand #1: Identity
Related concepts to consider:
Autonomy, Character, Diversity, Ethnicity, Fulfillment, Gender, Heritage, Image, Initiative, Perseverance, Resilience, Self-Regulation, Sexuality, Spirituality, Trust

Strand #2: Active Living
Related concepts to consider:
Aesthetics, Biomechanics, Body Control, Body Form, Challenge, Competition, Energy, Flexibility, Flow, Growth, Goal Setting, Improvement, Leisure, Mastery, Overload, Physiology, Power, Rest, Spatial Awareness, Strength and Endurance, Stress
Strand #3
Related concepts to consider:
Belonging, Citizenship, Community, Conflict, Conformity, Control, Discrimination, Fair Play, Interdependence, Justice, Leadership, Peace, Preservation, Reparation, Safety, Stereotype, Team Work

Although you can easily find these related concepts on page 117 of the guide, I have included them in this blog because having a good look at them myself since the new PSPE scope and sequence came out last year has helped me to broaden the avenue I take within the lessons I teach. Some of these concepts may not seem to link to PE, but when I had a closer look at them, I found that everyone of the related concepts could fit within the program that I teach. It prompted many new ideas for discussion with the students and has allowed for more opportunity to vary the written reflection that I have my students complete on a regular basis.

                                  Recording Data and Graph Creation in PE

                                          

Unit: Body Journeys: An inquiry into how exercise impacts the heart.

Grade 4/5

Objective: To teach the students how to take their own pulse in order to determine their resting heart rate, their maximum heart rate, and the recovery time needed for the heart rate to return to its resting rate.

Key Concepts

Connection:

What is the connection between the body’s heart rate and exercise?

Function:

How should we record the different levels of heart rate?

How should we graph the data recorded in PE?

This was a very successful lesson that I ran with my grade 4/5 classes in PE class. After some brief discussions on heart rate and exercise, we had the students practice finding their own pulse and the pulse of a peer. The different formulas that we used to determine beats/minute were:

A)  Count pulse for 6 seconds and then take the number of beats and add a zero. For example, if they counted 9 beats in the 6 seconds they would add a zero to the 9 producing the result of 90 beats/minute. This was a quick way to determine heart rate

B)   Count pulse for 15 seconds and then multiply by 4 to determine beats/minute. For example 22 beats in 15 seconds would result in a heart rate of 88beats/minute

C)   Count pulse for 30 seconds and multiply by 2 to determine beats per minute.

This took roughly 15 minutes to introduce and to get the kids into the activity. At this point, we had them lie down on their backs and rest for 5 minutes and then proceeded to take their resting heart rates. Most of the students were between 80-95 beats per minute. They recorded their result as their resting heart rate.

Once they recorded this data, we had the students play a very active game for about 8-10 minutes and then had them take their heart rates again. They were surprised to see how much of a spike their was in the beat/minute. I would say that they range here was between 160-200 beats/minute. They recorded this data.

As a cool down we had them lie back down and every minute had them take their heart rates until they were at or very near their resting heart rates. The recovery time was the numbers of minutes needed for their heart rates to return to their resting rate. In most cases, the students were at or near their resting rates after 8-10 minutes.

These data sheets were brought back to their classroom teachers who had them create either bar or line graphs using the recorded results.

Our gymnastics unit officially concluded around the third week of January. However, as a way to celebrate what the students learned during the unit, we offered a chance for students to showcase their gymnastics skills at the elementary assembly held this morning on our campus. Over the last two weeks during lunch recess, we have been working to refine the skills of the students performing in today's assembly, making minor changes and ensuring that safe execution was of utmost importance. With 300 students and over a hundred parents watching, our entertaining gymnasts performed wonderfully and should be very proud of themselves for taking the risk to get up in front of such a large group to showcase what they had learned during the gymnastics unit. From star jumps, to knee tucks, pyramids, and flips, they did it all. We even had a teacher and parent run up to do a flip. Well done!! All of the students that took part will receive Learner Profile "Risk Taker" certificates along with a picture of themselves peforming which will be put into their Sportfolios.